NATIONAL PORTRAITGALLERY
More information Today Programme Film: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=X8UriXjmYFw&feature= youtu.be something I want to domore of in the future. It was my first video project and it took such a long time to bring to fruition that I’mnot sure it would be particularly viable on a regular basis, but it was certainly something I found very fulfilling.” produce, the video took four months! Ideally I would have liked to have shot it using a film camera – I worry about the archival properties of digital processes – but it would have become impossibly expensive. Video is muchmore accessible, and allows people from all backgrounds to now think about makingmoving productions.” Uncomfortable with being described as an artist – he very much prefers just to be known as a photographer –Nigel is nonetheless meticulous about his vision on an artistic project, and he’s delighted with the way the Today portrait has worked out and how it’s been received. “For this particular shoot it was the right way to go,” he says, “but I haven’t decided whether this is
“I was concerned for my subjects not to have any distractions, and so I set the interviews up in small, quiet places, where they weren’t overlooked by anyone. All kinds of things can affect the eventual outcome, and I wanted to keep things calm. The presenters seemed surprised that it was all so low key, and it was a bit like they felt ‘what, you’re going to be filming here?’” Filming took place over three days in July last year, but inmany ways this was the easy part. While he was confident he had the material he needed tomake his video portrait work, Nigel realised from the outset that the editing process would be a crucial part of the concept. He took time to think about what he wanted to do and enlisted the help of an experienced editor, Morena Mfumu, to ensure that he got what he wanted. “I kind of suggested stuff to Morena,” says Nigel, “and she then put things in place. But it was a lengthy process: where a straightforward set of still images might have taken a few days to
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SPRING 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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